Stuart Pearce has never wavered in his belief that sporting an England shirt
is “the pinnacle” in a footballer’s life. As he selects his one and only
senior starting XI the caretaker will be looking for men who have their
“tails up” and who share his romantic view of national service.

Under scrutiny: Micah Richards could be restored as England right-backPhoto: GETTY IMAGES

To Pearce the sense of privilege is as clear as the parting in his hair: “I’ve played in the Champions League for Newcastle and, whenever I get asked what’s my proudest moment, it’s not playing in the Champions League.

"It’s playing for England and captaining England. I can only say it as I see it, and what I hold dear in my heart.” To which the modern cynic responds: good luck with that.

Pearce laid out his patriotic principles as meticulously as he arranged the cones on Wembley’s pitch.

He carried out the bibs, too, stacking them in a neat pile. Here was a coach so used to being Fabio Capello’s footman that he seemed to forget he was king for a day.

To be the supremo in a Wembley fixture against the old orange foe of Holland is nirvana for Pearce. A former England captain who will also run the GB Olympic football team, Pearce has achieved a remarkably wide sphere of influence. He has even “tinkered” with the plans for England’s Euro 2012 build-up, making “recommendations” to a “federation” (as he called it) now looking beyond him for a permanent successor.

Apparently bullied by Capello on the bench in South Africa (the “stand up, sit down” affair), Pearce is no Uriah Heep in his week at the top, despite laying out the cones.

Holland’s visit causes his chest to swell with the flag-based sentimentality he still feels in an age when Champions League glamour has eclipsed the charms of international combat, with its near-misses and epic let-downs.

For one night, we are back in the 1980s, when players never questioned the joy of an England call-up. Or so we are told. Pearce will tell this thrown-together squad that their mentality should be: “If I play well tonight I might get another cap, I’ll be kept in the team.”

This is a sweet idea, but the reality is that most England players will regard the Holland game as an arch to pass through pending the appointment of Harry Redknapp or AN Other.

Many will bust a gut to create a favourable impression. But they will not be acting out Pearce’s John Bull world sentiments. Their thoughts will be on what happens next.

Some will regard their intense stopgap leader as a refugee from the Capello era who has simply not been moved on yet.

The big questions are who will lead England’s attack in the first two Euro 2012 games in the absence of Wayne Rooney (suspended) and Darren Bent (injured).

Here Danny Welbeck has most to gain. Equally England’s disrupted back four needs to assume firmer shape before they encounter tournament play.

With the John Terry-Rio Ferdinand partnership now in the past tense, England’s young centre-backs need properly bedding in alongside Micah Richards, who should be rehabilitated with a starting berth.

On the Dutch front, long-term Pearce watchers remember him visiting the Airborne Museum at Arnhem during the 2007 Under-21 European Championship. Everything about him radiates a heightened sense of British/Englishness.

Yet the Wembley crowd is kidding itself if it thinks patriotic rhetoric will make much difference for a one-match reign, especially as the players are already familiar with Pearce’s outlook from the Capello years.

The presence of Liverpool’s Carling Cup-winning Englishmen was offered as proof of the patriotic energy now swelling in the camp.

“Extra time on Sunday, they won a trophy — [yet] they’re desperate to be here,” Pearce said of the likes of Steven Gerrard and Stewart Downing.

The Liverpool men were being “looked after” but will be told: “We need you to be at full tilt when you play for your country. It doesn’t get any better than that.”

In Stuart Lancaster’s England rugby camp humility and gratitude are now restored. But it took time, as well as letters from parents and coaches to remind the players what it means to reach the top.

Pearce is attempting a crash course in emotional realignment. He watched them closely in training and thought: “With certain individuals you think, ‘Well, he’s got his tail up.’ With others you think, ‘Hang on a minute.’”

He still insists this is “the peak of English football”, despite all evidence to the contrary. The Wembley hardcore will applaud him for that and want him to leave his mark.

Again and again he returned to the motif that “playing for England is the true pinnacle of anyone’s career” and that the players are “desperate to be here”. Maybe so. Or perhaps they think, as Hart said, “you’ve just got to roll with it” until the squad know who will steer them over the white lines against France on June 11.

Hart said the virtue of “Mr Capello”, as he now calls him, was that everyone knew the rules and what was expected.

The first rule of management these days is that multi-millionaire players must believe the boss knows what he is doing, and why. The prospect of success counts for more than the abstraction of nationalistic fervour.

Pearce is striking his favourite note. There is no time to strike any other. But when the crowd have dispersed into the night the players will want to know what the plan is — and fast.